Things you used to do that now are very bad for you

[gold-n-rod]

I'm not talking about sex, drugs and rock and roll, but more chemical or industrial in nature. Here are some examples of things I've done in the past that today we know to be very bad for you.

1. Got out the mercury from the science labs and played with it during science class.
2. Cut asbestos board with a jig saw without wearing a dust mask.
3. Poured drain oil onto the gravel road our front of the house. This was an area with water wells. We thought we were keeping the dust down.
4. Blow out brake dust with an air gun (again, without a mask) while performing a brake job.
5. Worked in a closed garage with some kind of degreasing fluid cleaning the frame of a truck that was being restored. A fuel oil salamander was running full blast at the time.
6. Sniffed carbon tetrachloride from the bottle. We used it to clean the type in the print shop where I worked during HS years. It gave a slight head rush, that's why we did it. Same with lacquer thinner.

Anyone do this kind of sh!t that is still alive to talk about it?

[Ed Donnelly]

Tear asbestos insulation off piping when installing new boilers.
My helper said it made his skin itchy. We then started soaking the asbestos with water until it was like paste. That likely saved both of our lives.
Figure an average of 20' of 4" pipe times 8 pipes per boiler, times 500 boilers
over the last 30 yrs............Ed

[MOP]

All of the above and a bit more, srated out with my dads dry cleaning store where I worked as a kid, all kinds of funny cleaning stuff there. I was in air frame repair in the USAF did tin knocking, cable & tubing, fiber glass & honey comb repair part of my job was fuel cell repair & sealing, I was in SAC worked on B52 bombers and KC135 tanker ans a lot of ADC fighters. We used all kinds of crap that is now thought to be real scary. Hey most every bit trim paint LEAD base, all of our steam pipes had aspestos jacketing and on and on! Why are we still here????? Should have been in a box a long time ago!!

[txtaz]

Uhhhhmmmm, Don't tell my Dad this because I still deny it to this day.
One night (when we were about 18), James Bond movies were all the rage, we went to the end of the longest, windiest canal in my Carlson. Turned off the running lights and floored it all the way to Little Bay. Everyone knew it was me. I had the only boat that would wind out like that. But we left a rooster tail all the way down the canal. Hehehehe Dad got a dozen or so calls the next day.
Wes
OK, I've grown up since then.

[mattyboy]

This thread explains alot :eek:

[Mac]

Ripped up a old linoleum floor that probably had asbestos in it, it was quite dusty had no idea it could be dangerous at the time.
Drive 140mph on a motorcycle every Sunday morning on the way to the gym, used to meet up with my buddies, thankfully only had that bike for a year. Drag race on the highway, got caught, got a ticket for 120mph in a 65mph and various other infractions. Probably a good thing as I never felt safe again when speeding. Swam across a small lake numerous times to prove I could do it. Dove on a wreck in October that was in 110' of 42 degree water, just me an one other guy, that was really stupid, one little mistake, could have been the end.

[Lenny]

Washed my hands and arms with Acetone while helping my dad glass as a kid. Actually until I was about 25 :eek:

We used to take Asbestos fibers, (they came in a bag) and mixed them with resin to a thick paste, then used it for filling and fairing stuff on boats and as a backer/foundation to bed wood in. Then we ground it. Again no mask.

Helped my dad pour the lead keel in his 40' sailboat which he built beside the house for about 10 years. It was about 7000 pounds of molten lead, boiled in a large pot (s), then we pouring it into the cavity. There was no deck on it yet, just tarps to keep the rain out and reduce the risk of explosion. The inside of the hull became one giant lead smoke filled room.

MAN, did that make us SICK :eek:

I painted my Hobie a two part baby blue. Endura was the product. Anyways, we got pops shop, (at least I did) about 75 degrees, with open woodstove, then I proceeded to spray it. Amazed at the beautiful gloss and reflections I was creating I just continued. Anyways, he came in when the room was totally blue, the air was ready to ignite (should have already) and I passed out. No mask. That was probably the worst.

Oh, and now I wear gloves when glassing, don't grind asbestos, wear a mask when spraying bad products, don't have open flame anywhere, stay away from Acetone (liver destruction) and don't touch lead. :)

[Craig S]

I use to have an...inflatable.:bonk:

[Forrest]

Any of you guy ever spray Zinc Chromate Primer on aluminum parts without respirator? If you have, you better go back and read what's printed on the side of the can.

Unfortunatly, my workshops from the past have been classified by the neighbors and my family to qualify as a Superfund clean-up sites. :bonk:

Lucky for me and my neighbors, I tightened up on safety and enviromental issues some time ago.

[springs]

Rode on a semi-truck inner-tube behind a 21' foot allison around 85 mph. Very stupid.

[Fish boy]

Roof-riding!!!!!

[goatee]

made me think of a shirt i seen somewhere

"i remember when racing was dangerous and sex was safe"

matty,,, i'm lmao rof

[thriller]

Bumper riding the school bus home from school..Those manhole covers were a bitch!

MM

[Cuda]

Washed my hands and arms with Acetone while helping my dad glass as a kid. Actually until I was about 25 :eek:
:)
Uh oh, I stll do that. What happens from it?

[gcarter]

Uh oh, I stll do that. What happens from it?
Joe, I understand it goes directly through the skin into the blood stream and has the same effect on the brain as sniffing glue or paint. :embarasse

[Fish boy]

Uh oh, I stll do that. What happens from it?
LOL, as I read several of the posts I thought the same thing. :D

[Lenny]

Acetone goes through your blood stream, STRAIGHT to your liver and resides there.

It has been linked to Kidney and Liver disease.

Use Nitril or polyethylene gloves. The gauntlets you can buy at fiberglass stores work great. The long black ones. Buy oversize a bit cause the "tension" created by by the fingers in the gloves wanting to be straight eventually fatigues your hand.

[DonziDave]

Back in the late 70's, I had a Rayson Craft drag boat with a blueprinted Holman Moody 427. This boat was so powerful that if you floored it from idle speed it would screw itself out of the water and cavitate the prop. Top speed was 134 mph and a very scary ride. The dumb part of this story is that I would run the boat wide open with no life jacket, helment, or kill switch. Just a bathing suit and a cooler of cold beer. In your youth you think you are bullet-proof.

Dave

[Cuda]

Uh oh. What about paint thinner and denatured alcohol? I clean my hands with them too. :bawling:

[springs]

Uh oh. What about paint thinner and denatured alcohol? I clean my hands with them too. :bawling:

Oh HELL, are you saying your not supposed to drink denatured alcohol?:eek!: :banghead:

[Formula Jr]

Getting horrific sunburns as a kid for several seasons.
Grinding off antifowling paint in the 80's on large yachts made over seas. Melting and recasting your own zincs - oh that green flame!....that was truely stupid. Doing alot of soldering and working with electronic VOCs and acid trace eching. Using Coleman gas lamps. Run one of those mantles by a giger counter some day - off the scale! As is flying in commercal jets at 30 thousand feet. Cosmic rays hitting all that aluminum and irradiating you,... Also off the scale. Drinking beer out of aluminum cans or Vodka from plastic bottles. Syphoning gas back when it had lead in it. But smoking has to be the worst. Too bad we don't get extra livers, like teeth, some where in your forties!

[Scubado]

I used to enjoy the occasional ride in the bed of the pick up truck. I suppose that's a real no-no these days....

[sanleonkid]

kinda a Southern thing ... run out in the mosquito fog from the trucks spraying up and down the street.

[gcarter]

kinda a Southern thing ... run out in the mosquito fog from the trucks spraying up and down the street.
Back in the late '40's, it was thought mosquitos carried polio. So everywhere there were roads on the Texas Gulf Coast the government sprayed with DDT. Of course my sister and I would run along behind the truck in the fog. My parents didn't even try try to stop us!!!! Makes you wonder if they were just ignorent of the perils or they had a death wish for us. :) :shocking:

[MrsDigger]

I grew up on a ranch, and we would turn the unbroken colts out in the back pasture until they were 4...we used to cobble halters together out of baling twine, lead the colts into the irrigation pond, then get on and ride them out. Mind you, most of them weren't even green-broke, so it was kind of a rodeo atmosphere. By the time we emerged from the pond, the twine halter was falling apart, and we were astride a bucking and snorting bronc, with nothing to hold onto but the mane. Getting bucked off wasn't the worst part--getting caught was. It is a wonder we survived.

[BUIZILLA]

for the sake of not getting arrested, i'll refrain from past details... but, i'm still alive and kicking... :garfield: :jestera: :lookaroun

[BERTRAM BOY]

Jim,
You can't leave us hanging like that......... You gotta give us something after a comment like that.

[mattyboy]

take the boot of your favorite broken waterski attach it to your skate board and use a yamaha 250 dirt bike as tow vehicle, great for removing freckles from those hard to reach areas,

ran with scissors

played with klick klacks

ate fluffanutter sandwiches and washed it down with kool aid

:rlol:

[Fish boy]

I am surprised we have not heard from Budmann yet. If we did, I would suspect he would say:

"I used to beat up my little brother... now that would be very painful for me.":rlol: :rlol: :hyper:

[gold-n-rod]

take the boot of your favorite broken waterski attach it to your skate board and use a yamaha 250 dirt bike as tow vehicle, great for removing freckles from those hard to reach areas,

ran with scissors

played with klick klacks

ate fluffanutter sandwiches and washed it down with kool aid

:rlol:

I did numbers 2-4. Number one sounds like a real ball buster. Oh, and that KoolAid was prolly full of Red Dye #5. :shocking: